‘Who is Who in the Zoo’ is an excellent Ice Breaker for a team building event, especially where participants need to be divided in to groups. This Ice Breaker helps the participants to get to know each other better in a hilariously funny way while at the same time, random groups are formed and cliques broken up in a non-threatening way. It is an extremely easy activity to prepare for, and all that is required is a pen and few sheets of paper.

The team building facilitator needs to know beforehand how many participants there will be, and into how many groups they will have to be divided. For each group, you need to select an animal that will represent that particular group. For example, three groups could be represented by pigs, cows and sheep alternatively. Other suitable animals that you can use are monkeys, elephants, donkeys or any other animal which you can think of that can be acted out.

Now take the number of participants and divide it by the number of groups required, for example, 21 people can be divided into three groups of seven. You will need a small piece of paper for each participant on which you write down a name of an animal. If you have three groups of seven, you will write down one animal on seven pieces of paper and another animal on another seven pieces of paper for the next group and another animal on seven more pieces of paper for the last group. You will then, for example, have seven pieces of paper with the word pigs written on it, seven pieces of paper with the word sheep written on it and seven pieces of paper with the word cows written on it.

All the pieces of paper are mixed up and thrown together in a suitable container such as a hat. Before the team building event starts, and after the facilitator has done the introductions and discussed the purpose of the event, the participants are invited to draw a piece of paper from the container. The participants are told not to show or tell anyone what is written on the paper which they have drawn. When everyone has drawn a piece of paper, all the participants are told that the animal name written on their piece of paper represents the team in which they will participate. They are then told that they need to find their team mates by acting out the animal or making the sound of the animal which represents their team.

The result is usually hilarious chaos, with the various animal actions and sounds the source of considerable entertainment. This Ice Breaker also gives the team building facilitator the opportunity to see how the different personality types react to the task. The facilitator can also see which team members are reluctant to participate. The ‘Who is Who in the Zoo’ team building Ice Breaker is particularly effective to loosen everyone up and prepare each participant for the team building activities ahead.